Bobby Fischer vs Donald Byrne

classic fischer game, trounced byrne when he was 13

Isn't this one called "the game of the century" == It's amazing.

Yes, It was my favorite ficher game really.

What a fantastic game -- From Na4 on every move is a lesson. I think what makes it such a great game is that Byrne played quite well and was blindsided by Fischer's magical queen sac to windmill combination, a combination that was very very easy to overlook when confronted with the tangle of complications arising out of the queen sac (which Byrne surely considered). Did Byrne really play the game out to mate on the board like that? An odd thing to do -- I'm sure he was asked about it, anyone know what he said?

I didn't see that plan coming when Fischer sacrificed his queen.

The windmill strategy was amazing.

I think he asked some onlookers, "Should I let the boy mate me?" and then proceeded to play it out instead of resigning.

Classic Fischer game, one of the more famous Queen sacrifices in Chess history. Sacrifices are pretty much just a walk in the park for Fischer.

Fischer had another brilliancy against GM Robert Byrne as well, the twin of IM Donald Byrne I believe. 

Wikipedia gives a nice summary of this beautiful game, including a picture of Fischer's game score.

http://tinyurl.com/47dvod

I found this in the wiki notes to the game... "One of Byrne's chess students related later why he played on: "First of all, you have to remember that in 1956 no one knew that Bobby Fischer was going to become Bobby Fischer! He was just a very promising 13-year-old kid who played a great game against me. When it got to the position where I was lost, I asked some of the other competitors if it might be a nice thing to let the kid mate me, as a kind of tribute to the fine game he played. They said, 'Sure, why not?' and so I did." Tim Krabbé, Open Chess Diary (scroll down to No. 241)"

Nicely annotated in the wiki. I gave myself a little pat on the back going thru the wiki notes, because when I looked over the game for this recent spate of posts at  11...Na4 my eyes popped out and I analyzed it a bit and I thought...that right there is one helluva move! GM Jonathan Rowson apparently agrees, having called it, "One of the most powerful moves of all time." Which seems a bit hyped, but it gets the point across: double bang!! I think Byrne gets a ! for declining the N.

Cool, maybe I'll post that one on too.

the title should be "Donald Byrne vs. Bobby Fischer"

By a bizarre coincidence I happened to play through those two games last night while studying the Gruenfeld.  I know the Byrnes were brothers, but I'm not sure they were twins.  Still, two grandmasters in one family!! Wild, weird, wacky!

Also remember that at 13 Bobby barely won the USjunior title, giving little indication he was a world beater.

I was wrong and they werent twins. Robert was older than Donald and Donald never made GM, he was IM.  

Well, IM's are still great chess players.

If I recall correctly the other Byrne game is an opposite approach to the "do I let the kid mate me" concept -- R. Byrne resigned in a position that GMs commenting on the game were saying was lost for Fischer. But R. Byrne had sniffed out the unavoidable genius combination that Fischer had set up and resigned so that he could at least say: "yeah I saw it too!" and be believed. 

Wait, here it is, fully annotated:

Nice, glad you enjoyed this game, NN28. I must say this is a great game.